Horizon 3s map absolutely knocked it out of the park, no other Horizon game has a map as diverse of a map as 3. It also has so many more specific areas that were fun to hang out in like the parking lot, boat wrecks, construction zone, logging area, the canyon etc etc
I always hated driving on 3’s map. While there were a lot of cool locations and diversity which was great, I found the actual roads themselves to be boring. Hardly any fun curvy mountain roads. Just loads of wide open sweepers and straights.
FH3 was probably the last game in the series to be focused on the cars with the festival and actually be a blast to play. The festival was implemented perfectly
One feature I really miss from this game was the custom radio station where you could stream your own music. The way it integrated your music in to the world like all the other normal stations was so cool, like how it would fade out and sound like it was playing from the speakers at the festival site made it feel really authentic and seamless. I also think this is the last game in the series that had really strong art direction. It still looks amazing. Later games still look nice on a technical level, but they never really nailed the vibes as well after FH3.
@@cheesepincher2166 It was back when Microsoft Groove music existed, they got rid of it in a later update but yeah it would play your groove music playlist even if you never bought songs, just stuff you uploaded to the drive and would actually play on the festival speakers and would get muffled if you drove under a tunnel or something. Good times.
I'm surprised my favorite feature wasn't in here. FH3 was the last game you could set up custom championships. Play as many as you want, however you want. I loved them because I would do higher difficulties and still feel like I could win overall so I wouldn't restart a race. Lots of fun and rewarding in a gameplay sense. Now, they are only reserved once or so seasonally, with some type of car restrictions. Cars that I may not want to drive in my free time. It's my number 1 hope to be re-added.
Forza Horizon 3 was released during a tough year for me, being surrounded by the death of my grandmother, my parents being separated at the time, and that my yet-to-be girlfriend back then was stalking me as we happened to live in the same neighborhood, and that I wasn't in good terms with her then. Back then, whenever I played FH3, I felt like I could put all these problems in the rear-view mirror as I felt so immersed with the game, feeling like I'm really there at the Horizon Festival in Australia, driving my dream cars, as opposed to a depressed life as a high school student, dealing with the loss of a loved one, family problems and someone being so creepy.
I have that same feeling about FH4, it helped me through the very difficult time of losing a child. Helped me to not think about it so much, escape my sorrowful reality for a few hours
You also forgot about how it was the only Horizon game that added a custom radio station you could add your own music in the game through Groove Music which is unfortunately completely gone now.
@@titledlnrd honestly they could easily implement something just for pc players where you can simply add tracks to a folder kinda like how GTA does it and scan the tracks in game and bam custom music in game
for me, this game brings back really fond memories. the trailer, the dev posts talking about widebodies being added, playing the game on release it left a really amazing impression that i won’t forget
I’m not sure if it was this game or not but I remember being able to convoy with AI and just drive around with similar cars. I used to spend hours pretending I had a friends. I miss this feature not everyone wants to be online
Yeah FH3 did have AI convoys! I didn't use it much personally so it didn't come up in the video - but definitely can be added to the list of "cool features they should have kept in and expanded on instead of scrapping"
Custom championships! Unlike Horizon 2, you can roll up to any route start location, and start an ad-hoc race, but you can also race championships. Every starting location had a pre-made one of 3 or more races, and you could also create your own. On the Horizon 2 video, I commented how the pre-made championships gave you a sense of direction, like "you have so much to do; how about this?" The ability to make custom championships is the other half of that equation that I think is highly missed from Horizon 4 and 5. There should be a whole slate of pre-made championships that can be done at any time, so there's always something for you to do and the impetus to go and do it. Even after they turn down the live service back-end, so there's no pressure to do them all right now. And the ability to make your own championships, and share them with the community.
As an Australian truck driver who’s been to every single location on the map, the map really let me down. They ALMOST nailed the feeling. What really bothered me was you could always see Surfers Paradise in the distance. So you never feel like you’re waaaaaaay out in the bush, you feel like you’re 30km out of the city…… and there’s red dirt all around you for some reason Then when you’re driving across the plains you see the American Rocky Mountains?? There are no snow capped mountains in Outback Australia. The Rocky Mountains are in the US another thing that is kinda more of a nitpick, because I’m a truck driver. The train. It has marker lights like a truck for some reason. So at night it looked like a road train going by, which was cool. But it was a train-train?? Why not just have a road train running a loop around the map instead? Road trains (at least in my biased opinion) are a massive icon of the Australian outback and it was a huge missed opportunity there I’m probably sounding very negative about it, but that’s just because there’s no point in me repeating all the great things you’ve already said. Absolutely loved that game and really miss what Horizon used to be
hey im curious. is yarra yarra and byron bay accurate at all, because it feels like byron bay is more suburbs than woods, which i absolutely love in that game. and you're right about surfer's paradise being in the distance from byron bay because aren't they in 2 different states (byron bay being in nsw and surfer's paradise being in queensland (and i just found out that the m1 highway exists. FML))? im american btw and dont ask how i know all of this
@@黒キツネ-九零二一零 I haven’t played FH3 or been in Byron for years (the highway bypasses both Sufers and Byron) but from what I remember when playing I didn’t have too much issue with how it was represented. Also despite being in different states, they’re actually just on opposite sides of the state line and aren’t that far apart at all. Though still not close enough to see, even if just because of the hills The Outback is where I spend most of my time. Coober Pedy they got 0/10. They captured “unnamed outback town” quite well. But I don’t remember anything like opal mines, underground homes or that truck on the sign that Coober Pedy has. It’s like having New York in the game without the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Hudson River, Wall Street, Times Square or literally anything that sets it apart from Chicago There is also no multi lane motorway that goes into the outback. I understand why they put that in for gameplay purposes though. But still it would have been fun and more realistic if it was just an empty 2 lane road
FH3 is my favorite Forza game ever. Probably a mixture of the nostalgia from being somewhat young when it came out, and the fact that I played it with so many childhood Xbox friends. I wish I could go back to 2016 with it lol
Forza Horizon 3 had, in my opinion, the best expansions in the series. They weren't just map expansions; they were entirely new and unique driving experiences. There was no base game alternative to the pure fantasy loop-the-loops of Hot Wheels, nor the snow-clad terrain of Blizzard Mountain. All the more reason to keep revisiting them again and again.
Something I feel has to be mentioned is the variety of the radio stations with all the genres covered. Plus, the choice of songs within the radio stations themselves is great. And there was even a real one (Future Classic) with all those Australian bands! More generally the soundtrack seemed pretty good and as you said, seemed to have plateaued with the two next games sounding worse especially on the engine sound side. To date it is still the only horizon game with a Tesla - hope I'm not wrong here. And lastly, on a personal note, this game takes me back to a time and space where days were rather good.
The only reason this is the best Horizon is because Forza Street was its own spin-off series. Jokes aside I do love FH3, it's the game I wanted more than anything when I got myself an Xbox One S, I remember waking my parents one night before Christmas because it was on sale on the Xbox store lol. The map is also the best in the series imo, it's absolutely stunning in terms of the vistas and the variation in biomes has yet to be matched even by FH5. Byron Bay is the most beautiful locale in a Forza game imo, I can just chill on the vantage point by the Festival Site and look out to see for ages. The Jungle is my next favourite place and I especially love the small waterfall cove hidden deep in the south-west. From there I like to head back to Byron Back using an off-roader to crash through the jungle before reaching Byron Bay again and then hopping in something like a GT Car to cruise along the coast up to Surfers Paradise with a stop to admire the view by the shipwreck. Surfers Paradise is a standout just because it's such a fantastic city and as you it's the only modern one we've had in the series. The cities in FH2 were also great but they were so much older in terms of architecture and style and it's the same with FH4 and 5. Just driving into Surfers is such a different vibe from the other games in the series and there's some really standout locations like the Parking Lot, the Pond areas and the long road down the waterfront. Lots of fun memories of just chasing people all over the city and diving down the sidestreets and back onto the main road. The engine sounds were also fantastic at this point, so many great sounding cars but also some really funny ones like the HSV GTS-R with a Sport Supercharger sounding like the world's angriest hoover. There's only 3 problems with the game which thankfully got addressed in later entries. 1) The lack of Ghosting in PR Zones was absolutely infuriating lol, so many Driftzone PBs ruined by goddamn traffic. 2) The PI system was really borked and handling parts cost so goddamn much compared to power (Speed and Acceleration was king basically) and 3) The Forzathon prize system was limited to certain times so if you missed the special cars when they were available then they're basically unobtainable now as the Auction House is dead. Before the game hit EoL I would've loved them to make the Forzathon cars available in the Autoshow but atleast for FH4 they learn their lesson and gave us the repeating playlist.
As someone who still plays to this day: 2) there’s many tracks such as Woodland, Headland, and Rainforest circuit which are contested by multiple different types of builds, instead of the same handling build spam in the modern games. Yes, even FWD and RWD. It’s a lot better than stuff like FH5, where it’s either a grip build, a powerbuild, or a boneshaker 3) there’s still a glitch to complete old forzathons👀
@@Spherz I've seen a few people who really prefer the FH3 style like you, I can kinda understand it but I've personally I've just never felt that comfortable with it. I'm generally someone who prefers purist builds so that might be part of it where I dislike using engine swaps and especially aero to counteract a car's deficits. Especially in the lower classes where I just feel very restricted in terms of what I can upgrade on the car. For FH5 I just massively prefer what to me feels like more freedom in terms of how I can build, especially with stuff like the Vintage Race Tires and Whitewall tires on the older models for D-B class. And FWD is actually pretty OP in FH5, it's very viable up until A Class and in C and B class especially it's probably the strongest drivetrain. Same with RWD where in a lot of cases it's way better for grip, power and all-round builds unless the car you're tuning gets a massive PI drop with an AWD swap or is just very sketchy to drive. Boneshaker is overrated now as well, it used to be super strong and still is a very good contender but there's now even better cars available if you're really pushing for that final % of pace potential. Nowadays it's only really overwhelmingly dominant in S1 Cross Country where it edges out cars like the Lola T70, Alfa 33S and Porsche 906 on most tracks. That's very interesting, I'll have to look into it as I'm still missing two of the Porsches.
Horizon 1 and 2 had the story and atmosphere, 4 and 5 act as a fantasy car sandbox, 3 existed in the middle, best of both worlds. I'm glad to have played it in its hayday.
I have 3,000 hours in this game and most of that was either roleplays in (Byron and Surfers), cruising, infected/flag rush, running the Goliath with friends, and drag racing at the train bridge or airstrip.
I miss the in game clubs so much they were way better than what we have now. I also have a ton of fond memories of doing drag races at the air strip with my friends. Dodge Dart and the Mercury Coupe were the kings of the strip.
There is a gas station in fh1, it's on the road that leads to Carson from Montano plains on the right side, no logos or anything like that but it's obviously a gas station. As well as another gas station on the north side of Carson coming off the highway.
Weird, I just drove around both of those areas and couldn't find either of them. Are you sure you aren't thinking of the "Trent's tool shed" auto shops that are in those areas? If you have any pics or a more specific location I'd love to see it!
Personally because I’m from U.K. FH4 was by far the most fun Fh3 city was really good though and the convoy feature was cool where you beep your horn and they join your convoy, they should bring car meet back
Even though I have all the other Forza games I think that you aren’t even missing out on anything but the cars because everything this games does is better than the rest. It’s hard to believe this game is 8 years old
I hate to say it, but going back to this game makes me realize how much Horizon 5 just doesn't have the "Horizon charm" like this one. So many cool innovative features, Horizon 5 has felt recycled for a long time. I really hope Horizon 6 goes for something new.
You forgot to mention drivatar convoys, you could honk at them, and they'll follow you. You could even start races with them while cruising. I miss that feature
finally his video about the actual best is out. i miss 3, as an aussie the map was elite. and it was before the permanently online bogus. private sessions actually worked, ever since 4 came out when you finnished an event youd get sent to random lobbies and have to re-join up with your friends, my friends and i straight up stopped playing events and just did open world stuff.
I remember seeing the trailer and instantly falling in love, i played this game non stop for like 2 years and made so many great memories, the hole cops n robbers stuff, how you always had a Free roam sprint to the next race, playing late into the night with friends, The sound design, the Visuals, How the cars drove just everything was perfect, never got boring and most importantly for me, showing me how beautiful Australia is, which is why I'm hopefully moving there from here in Germany in 2-3 Years. This game has so much soul and you can literally feel how much love went into this Game, i always get really Nostalgic and happy seeing this Game, one of my all Time Favourite games.
i've never played horizon 3, and i've played all of the others before and without a doubt i feel like there's a huge jump from 2 to 3, where you get the feel of 4 and 5
Horizon 3 was a great game but also the beginning of the end of progression for the series. Loved fucking around with friends around Australia but it’s hard for me to not view this as the game where Horizon just got it so wrong.
Remember, they are now *forced* to Carry an ESRB E Rating, that makes it nearly Impossible to do a Story, so how can they bring back Progression (Zero to Hero) with no Story (due to the ESRB giving an E-10 to FH2 despite it being a PEGI 3 in the UK/EU) to hang it from?
as someone who lives in australia and on the gold coast where surfers paradise is located, the game is actually great. one problem i have with it is that they say “ we are gonna take the great ocean road to surfers” that trip would take 3-4 days with no breaks ☠️☠️
FH3 was the first horizon i played after switching to an Xbox One, played it a ton with some online buddies, we'd do championship races, cruise around the map, mess around and it was good fun. another one of my favorite features was that it was the first and only game to let you play custom music via the Groove Music radio station, which would sync your Groove Music library in-game, unfortunately Microsoft killed the app like 2 or 3 years after the game so it no longer works :(
FH3 is my first Horizon game and favorite. The intro to that game is absolutely magical, the vibe, the music, Centenario, visuals, it's such a feeling. It's so sad that it didn't get a Steam release.
Gosh, I love this game so much! ❤️ It did one special thing to me, that no (race) game ever pulled off: It brought back so many memories of the best trip I ever had in my life, which was our honeymoon we spent in Australia. Just by driving through Byron Bay or other spots my heart still gets flooded with emotions because I’m reminded of the days we spent Down Under. It also was my first Horizon and since I was more of simracing guy back then, I wasn’t expecting much. But the beauty of these sunrises, the night sky, the landmarks and the music… It still gets me 3.5 years after I started playing it (yeah, I was late to the party). I played FH4 und FH5 in the meantime, too. But FH3 isn’t just the best for me, because of the atmosphere, but also because it works great as single player experience with championships and a rough feeling of a progresion. I know it’s a very small thing, but there’s a completion indicator in one of the menus and thatt small UI thing alone motivates me more to keep playing than everything FH4 and FH5 have to offer. Two days ago, I brought the completion to a little bit over 95%. I fear it’s time to finally learn some drifting… 😉 @HokiHoshi: Thanks for this video series. I’m looking forward to every part of it and I really like what you are doing with it. After covering the main games, maybe you want to go deep on the expansions?
Hey, thank you!! It seems like a lot of folks had a similar entry to the series with FH3. Glad you've been liking these vids so far! I went back and forth a lot on whether or not to cover the expansions with every game but decided against it in the end, so going back and reviewing all the DLCs would be cool!
FH3 was my first horizon game, racing game, and now that I think about it, my first video game. It’s what got me into cars, and the game is just really nostalgic for me. The expansions, the music, the map, and the fact I wouldn’t upgrade my camshaft because it made my braking so ever so slightly worse (I knew nothing about cars at the time), it was just great. Totally agree with you.
Such a weird thing to realize, but when doing a burnout in FH3 the tire smoke actually "flows" with the spinning wheels...very hard to explain, but very noticeable when comparing to the newer games
FH3 is absolutely my favorite in the series. It's just fantastic all around. The map, the city skyline, the music, the cars, the bucket lists, and the graphics. I remember the graphics at the time just blew me and my brother away. They still look good. Just the entire game had a vibe to it. You touched on most of it in the video. That was a fun watch.
Apart from being Australian myself, it was the first Horizon game I play. The environments and graphic detail was fantastic, right down to the Telstra phone boxes. Made you feel right at home. The 'Create your own server' option was amazing. The only negative for me was the non-ghosting of other online players. You got many trolls that would enjoy ramming you at high speed for their jollys. And it made it difficult for drift and speed zones with NPC cars in the way. I'll FYI you on the gas station. In Australia we call them 'servos', short for service stations, because the old petrol stations sometimes had a car servicing area to have your car serviced.
All my life I was a die-hard NFS fan. Owned and played every single one. During 2018, I really felt like NFS was just not fun driving anymore (2015 and Payback with its 'Drift to Turn') and I wasn't into Sim Racing at the time. It was either around the holidays or earlier into 2019 where I saw something about FH4. I gave it a shot and fell in love right away. Went back and tried FH3 not too long after, and besides the physics being a bit more flushed out in 4, I still loved 3 more. The atmosphere, the map, the soundtrack, the learning to tune, all felt really fun.
Horizon 3 was the pinnacle of the series as far as I'm concerned, for many of the reasons you stated above hoki, but the one thing stands out to me was drag racing. When I say this I'm not taking about the kids running awd, v12 swapped bs blasting end to end at the air strip, I'm talking about the train tracks. I would come home every day from school to spend hours testing and tuning different cars there. I used to set a marker for 440 yards at certain speed traps so I could at least get some data as to whether my tunes were working correctly or not. The overall feel of the cars when you launched from a dig with nothing but race tires at the time was second to none. Today all you have to do is put "Drag Slicks" on your car, which is a cool option but lacks the challenge of the "No prep" style of racing we had in Horizon 3. You fought the car the entire way down the track, fighting for every bit of traction you could get. Those races were unforgettable and I'm ashamed we have nothing even close in the newer installments of the series. Sure, you could start a LFG post and make a rule set similar to what we had back then, but it would never be the same. That's the one thing I miss the most and the one thing I'd like to see back, other than a placed dedicated to doing tandem drifts with lower HP cars rather than the 1500hp drift zones we have now, but that's just me. -Deezy
The standout feature of this game for me was the Groove Music radio station. It was a custom radio station which worked on both Xbox and PC via uploading your songs to OneDrive. I much preferred it over playing music in the background as it integrated into the game seamlessly, with the songs playing on the Horizon festival speakers, starting in sync with races, in-game adjustable volume to roughly match that of the default stations etc. The fact that this station was removed in March 2019 due to the discontinuation of Groove music with no replacement being offered in future games is the one feature (or lack thereof) that disappoints me the most about the series nowadays.
I always loved the small details of the map. It was almost jarring seeing how much it all looked like Australia (specifically north/east NSW & south/east QLD) after being so used to most games looking like America. Things like the road lines and the reflectors, even the wheelie bins. I would constantly look houses and think, “I’m certain I’ve seen that exact house in real life”.
Just remembered I owned this game on PC and will finally have time to play it in full! Thank you for explaining why this is the best Forza! Also that trailer gave me chills! Subscribed!
I absolutely love this game. I rewatch the Horizon 3 trailer every now again and it gives me goosebumps, but this game is just pure fun. I only wish I could have bought all the DLC car packs before the game went off the store. Definitely my favorite Horizon game and probably favorite game of all time.
This was the first Horizon I got when I bought my Xbox One. I played it and then moved up to 4 when it came out and never really looked back. When Covid hit and I was stuck indoors, I came back and fully 100% the game. Its definitely my favourite Horizon of all time
The fact that you can't get the first 3 Horizon games without going on dodgy key reseller sites and pay, like, 10x the price AND/OR sail the digital sea is atrocious on MS's part. FH3 was the game that both ignited my love for racing games and the single game I wanted the most ever. There is something to this game that hooks me in like no other racing game I've ever played...
I remember staying home from school the day this game released bc I bought the ultimate edition and couldn’t wait to drive in Australia. The trailer hooked me so bad no other Forza game has done that to me
It's hard to overstate just how magical FH3 felt back in 2016 - especially when it came to the social aspect. Online freeroam wasn't just permanently ingrained into the game - you had to go out of your way to enter it. You had to *want* to meet other people. It was the last Horizon game to have an open hot mic in the lobby and on races: no extra steps, not having to invite everyone to a convoy. You just join, unmute, and start talking. It felt alive because of that - you really were playing against other real, living people. Collisions were on in freeroam too. Sure, this left the door open for griefing, but it lended credence to you actually coexisting with other people. Sure, it wasn't perfect. Not even close. It was hard to find a lobby where people weren't just drag racing V12 Darts, or drifting around the parking lot ad infinitum, or cruising at only 5 MPH. And Horizon 3 had a lot of flaws in retrospect. But there's a reason I sunk 2,700 hours into this game over 2 years. It was truly the end of an era when it came to social multiplayer. Horizon 4 and beyond, along with many other games, added a lot more hoops to reach that same level of interactivity with people. And it's just too much bullshit for most people to bother with. Nobody wants to talk shit with strangers in hot lobbies anymore. It's all so insular now Horizon 4 and 5 can claim to make the games more connected than ever, but they do the opposite. Developers and publishers disincentivize this, people have fallen out of favor with it, and it doesn't help that games are just worse overall now. Horizon 3 is a kind of game that can never again be replicated, and that makes me sad. All of that wonder and joy I felt, and ambition for what the future held: all for naught.
Horizon 3, where my Horizon journey began, could not have picked a better game to start it at. The map, cars, graphics, music etc. Horizon 3 stands above the rest in many ways, but if I could use a phrase to describe it, I would say "Absolutely incredible!!!" To this day, I still go back to it, play online, still can find full lobbies!!! I can go on FH4 and there only be 34 players in a lobby that can hold 70. Horizon is truly the very BEST Horizon game created, and to this day, none have out done it in every category
Im replaying on my new pc and I love this game to death. I like how the offline world is packed with drivatars that you can challenge to races. You have to win x amount to unlock more street races which were always at night. The real city was also a vibe. 10/10 game. Hope we get a remasters of 2 and 3 with some small additions.
can't believe you didn't talk about the dev build accident. by far the best customization in any of these games and it's a damn shame it's so hard to set it up
Love your insights into this game. I always take time in any game to try and take in all the visual and audio details the developers put into the games. This one is incredible for both. I got into it late (earlier this year actually). Only reason I picked it up was to drive a Prowler in a video game. Was also the reason I picked up a refurbished Xbox 1at the same time. I am a huge fan of this game and regret not getting into it when it was current to enjoy all the features. Great video- thanks!
I guess they don't like releasing old games, but if they just release the map itself for dlc for 5 l. I would still buy that even though I rather have the whole game
Went back and played this game not all that long ago after starting with FH4 and then FH5. I played it for a bit and quickly decided that it was my favorite of the three with FH4 being a fairly close second mostly due to the multitude of features and better structured campaign
Exact same for me to the letter. I even paid *way* too much for a Blizzard Mountain code on a key site last fall. LOL I've since also played through most of FH1 and FH2 and quite honestly, 1 is amazing... much better than I expected it to be. 2 is great as well, but 3 is much better.
I miss bucket list challanges and also career championships wher you'd collect points across 3 races to win or lose the championship. I think that while some parts of the fh series has been massily improved upon, quite a lot of actually fun stuff is still missing, which contributes to the feeling that fh4 and 5 are kind of boring. Tho I must admit as good as the fh3 map was as a open area, amount of roads especially in the middle of the map was tad bit low thus making it feel as if the map was actually boring
I think Horizon 3 was just perfect, I think the map was the best thing about it, and the game didn't have a lot of the " details and things " that I dislike in 5. There's so much of 3 that I wish they added back/implemented better and some stuff of 5 I wish they removed. I hope that at the end you do a rank of each of the horizons
I went to take a peek at the trailer...one reason was because FH3 was the only FH game I played fully/finished when it came out and it was great. I watched that trailer and had a little tear up (nice). It's funny because I don't think I watched the trailer for it when it was coming out or at least I don't remember it
FH3 holds a special place in my heart, I got it when I was first getting into cars, I say it’s the best probably cause of bias but when 4 and 5 came out I would still play 3 only playing the other two when I felt like using newer or cars that arnt in 3, and today it’s the only reason my one s is still around since I own it on disc
Loved it, and I think a feature that was not mentioned was convoys with AI. When you honk your horn, you can get the AI cars to join you and just cruise around the map, or race to various destinations. FH3 is the only horizon to have this feature.
As far as maps go I rank like this: 4, 2, 5, 3 and 1. For a total game package, there’s nothing close 5. The quality of updates and Eventlab are incredible.
In Australia, they are called "Petrol Stations" So strictly speaking, there are still no Gas-Stations in the Forza Horizon series. As an Australian, it is a real shame this game seems to no longer be on Steam, though v.v
A lot of things I forgot about! I didn't play FH3 for very long, I was a late-comer to it and when FH4 dropped I moved on to it and didn't really come back. Regrets.
up until 2017, I had played the Forza Motorsport series through my uncles Xbox. I liked the motorsport games for their car list, and handling like fm2/3/4; but I never really invested much time in them as I never had an Xbox, and was a die-hard PlayStation fan enjoying Hot Pursuit, MW2012, Burnout Paradise/Revenge, Hot wheels Beat That, GT5, Mod Nation Racers etc. That changed though when FH3 was revealed as up until that point I didn't have any knowledge of the Horizon Series existence, and after I watched the infamous E3 trailer the rest was history. when it was released, I'd beg my dad to buy me an XB1 so I could solely play THIS game. I'd go to my best friend's house and grind the game with him for HOURS, leveling him up from 26 to 371 and i was just blown away by the number of cars this game had, the multiplayer and going to drift meets at the parking lot, and the color lively vibe of this game; and in late 2017 after I got home from visiting my mom in NY, my dad bought me The Horizon Hot wheels bundle for my birthday and I was excited. Ever since then I've dumped around 550+ hours into the game, and still play it over 4 & 5 to this day. really does suck that a lot of things that made this game so special we're either dumbed down or scrapped entirely, but this game will always hold a special place in my heart.
Horizon 3s map absolutely knocked it out of the park, no other Horizon game has a map as diverse of a map as 3. It also has so many more specific areas that were fun to hang out in like the parking lot, boat wrecks, construction zone, logging area, the canyon etc etc
I always hated driving on 3’s map. While there were a lot of cool locations and diversity which was great, I found the actual roads themselves to be boring. Hardly any fun curvy mountain roads. Just loads of wide open sweepers and straights.
Personally I think FH2 has it more varied and that is coming from an Aussie, FH3 though is a very enjoyable map to cruise around it
Sense of speed was also incredible and made the experience even more fun
Anything is better than fh5s
@@sirjarko8762 imo FH2 is SIGNIFICANTLY less varied then FH3
FH3 was probably the last game in the series to be focused on the cars with the festival and actually be a blast to play. The festival was implemented perfectly
One feature I really miss from this game was the custom radio station where you could stream your own music. The way it integrated your music in to the world like all the other normal stations was so cool, like how it would fade out and sound like it was playing from the speakers at the festival site made it feel really authentic and seamless.
I also think this is the last game in the series that had really strong art direction. It still looks amazing. Later games still look nice on a technical level, but they never really nailed the vibes as well after FH3.
@@cheesepincher2166 It was back when Microsoft Groove music existed, they got rid of it in a later update but yeah it would play your groove music playlist even if you never bought songs, just stuff you uploaded to the drive and would actually play on the festival speakers and would get muffled if you drove under a tunnel or something. Good times.
CAN I DO THIS ON PC?!?
I'm surprised my favorite feature wasn't in here. FH3 was the last game you could set up custom championships. Play as many as you want, however you want. I loved them because I would do higher difficulties and still feel like I could win overall so I wouldn't restart a race. Lots of fun and rewarding in a gameplay sense. Now, they are only reserved once or so seasonally, with some type of car restrictions. Cars that I may not want to drive in my free time. It's my number 1 hope to be re-added.
Forza Horizon 3 was released during a tough year for me, being surrounded by the death of my grandmother, my parents being separated at the time, and that my yet-to-be girlfriend back then was stalking me as we happened to live in the same neighborhood, and that I wasn't in good terms with her then.
Back then, whenever I played FH3, I felt like I could put all these problems in the rear-view mirror as I felt so immersed with the game, feeling like I'm really there at the Horizon Festival in Australia, driving my dream cars, as opposed to a depressed life as a high school student, dealing with the loss of a loved one, family problems and someone being so creepy.
I have that same feeling about FH4, it helped me through the very difficult time of losing a child. Helped me to not think about it so much, escape my sorrowful reality for a few hours
The only Horizon where you could play your own music with One Drive. It was amazing
I never knew this!?
The soundtrack is so good, and Blizzard Mountain/Hot Wheels are probably the best DLC of any Horizon
i didn’t get blizzard but i have hot wheels. i really wish i got blizzard tbh
Blizzard mountain was awesome DLC. Nothing came close.
The Hot Wheels DLC for Horizon 3 was also one of the best DLCs in the entire Horizon series.
EVERY. FUCKING. TIME. That trailer grabs you by the feels and FUCKS. HARD!
You also forgot about how it was the only Horizon game that added a custom radio station you could add your own music in the game through Groove Music which is unfortunately completely gone now.
Yeah, that kinda sucks since listening music on spotify doesnt have a radio host like on groove music
@@titledlnrd honestly they could easily implement something just for pc players where you can simply add tracks to a folder kinda like how GTA does it and scan the tracks in game and bam custom music in game
@@HikariSakai Ikr
They could even do something with OneDrive for xbox players
for me, this game brings back really fond memories. the trailer, the dev posts talking about widebodies being added, playing the game on release it left a really amazing impression that i won’t forget
I'm still playing it to this day, I never left.
sad no online. I'm using a PC of course
Same here:)
I’m not sure if it was this game or not but I remember being able to convoy with AI and just drive around with similar cars. I used to spend hours pretending I had a friends. I miss this feature not everyone wants to be online
Yeah FH3 did have AI convoys! I didn't use it much personally so it didn't come up in the video - but definitely can be added to the list of "cool features they should have kept in and expanded on instead of scrapping"
@HokiHoshi can you try to beat my rival on forza horizon 3
3rd last cross country race on rivals? D class I'm literally number 4 lol try to beat it if you can
Custom championships! Unlike Horizon 2, you can roll up to any route start location, and start an ad-hoc race, but you can also race championships. Every starting location had a pre-made one of 3 or more races, and you could also create your own. On the Horizon 2 video, I commented how the pre-made championships gave you a sense of direction, like "you have so much to do; how about this?" The ability to make custom championships is the other half of that equation that I think is highly missed from Horizon 4 and 5. There should be a whole slate of pre-made championships that can be done at any time, so there's always something for you to do and the impetus to go and do it. Even after they turn down the live service back-end, so there's no pressure to do them all right now. And the ability to make your own championships, and share them with the community.
My first Horizon!
My First Xbox game when i bought my Xbox one good times
@@lucasmatos5503 same! It came with my One S
Same here
@@vortifyneyeaahh!!! same for me!
@@lucasmatos5503Same, dude!!
As an Australian truck driver who’s been to every single location on the map, the map really let me down. They ALMOST nailed the feeling. What really bothered me was you could always see Surfers Paradise in the distance. So you never feel like you’re waaaaaaay out in the bush, you feel like you’re 30km out of the city…… and there’s red dirt all around you for some reason
Then when you’re driving across the plains you see the American Rocky Mountains?? There are no snow capped mountains in Outback Australia. The Rocky Mountains are in the US
another thing that is kinda more of a nitpick, because I’m a truck driver. The train. It has marker lights like a truck for some reason. So at night it looked like a road train going by, which was cool. But it was a train-train?? Why not just have a road train running a loop around the map instead? Road trains (at least in my biased opinion) are a massive icon of the Australian outback and it was a huge missed opportunity there
I’m probably sounding very negative about it, but that’s just because there’s no point in me repeating all the great things you’ve already said. Absolutely loved that game and really miss what Horizon used to be
hey im curious. is yarra yarra and byron bay accurate at all, because it feels like byron bay is more suburbs than woods, which i absolutely love in that game. and you're right about surfer's paradise being in the distance from byron bay because aren't they in 2 different states (byron bay being in nsw and surfer's paradise being in queensland (and i just found out that the m1 highway exists. FML))?
im american btw and dont ask how i know all of this
@@黒キツネ-九零二一零 I haven’t played FH3 or been in Byron for years (the highway bypasses both Sufers and Byron) but from what I remember when playing I didn’t have too much issue with how it was represented. Also despite being in different states, they’re actually just on opposite sides of the state line and aren’t that far apart at all. Though still not close enough to see, even if just because of the hills
The Outback is where I spend most of my time. Coober Pedy they got 0/10. They captured “unnamed outback town” quite well. But I don’t remember anything like opal mines, underground homes or that truck on the sign that Coober Pedy has. It’s like having New York in the game without the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Hudson River, Wall Street, Times Square or literally anything that sets it apart from Chicago
There is also no multi lane motorway that goes into the outback. I understand why they put that in for gameplay purposes though. But still it would have been fun and more realistic if it was just an empty 2 lane road
FH3 is my favorite Forza game ever. Probably a mixture of the nostalgia from being somewhat young when it came out, and the fact that I played it with so many childhood Xbox friends. I wish I could go back to 2016 with it lol
Forza Horizon 3 had, in my opinion, the best expansions in the series. They weren't just map expansions; they were entirely new and unique driving experiences. There was no base game alternative to the pure fantasy loop-the-loops of Hot Wheels, nor the snow-clad terrain of Blizzard Mountain. All the more reason to keep revisiting them again and again.
Something I feel has to be mentioned is the variety of the radio stations with all the genres covered. Plus, the choice of songs within the radio stations themselves is great. And there was even a real one (Future Classic) with all those Australian bands!
More generally the soundtrack seemed pretty good and as you said, seemed to have plateaued with the two next games sounding worse especially on the engine sound side.
To date it is still the only horizon game with a Tesla - hope I'm not wrong here.
And lastly, on a personal note, this game takes me back to a time and space where days were rather good.
The only reason this is the best Horizon is because Forza Street was its own spin-off series.
Jokes aside I do love FH3, it's the game I wanted more than anything when I got myself an Xbox One S, I remember waking my parents one night before Christmas because it was on sale on the Xbox store lol.
The map is also the best in the series imo, it's absolutely stunning in terms of the vistas and the variation in biomes has yet to be matched even by FH5. Byron Bay is the most beautiful locale in a Forza game imo, I can just chill on the vantage point by the Festival Site and look out to see for ages. The Jungle is my next favourite place and I especially love the small waterfall cove hidden deep in the south-west. From there I like to head back to Byron Back using an off-roader to crash through the jungle before reaching Byron Bay again and then hopping in something like a GT Car to cruise along the coast up to Surfers Paradise with a stop to admire the view by the shipwreck.
Surfers Paradise is a standout just because it's such a fantastic city and as you it's the only modern one we've had in the series. The cities in FH2 were also great but they were so much older in terms of architecture and style and it's the same with FH4 and 5. Just driving into Surfers is such a different vibe from the other games in the series and there's some really standout locations like the Parking Lot, the Pond areas and the long road down the waterfront. Lots of fun memories of just chasing people all over the city and diving down the sidestreets and back onto the main road.
The engine sounds were also fantastic at this point, so many great sounding cars but also some really funny ones like the HSV GTS-R with a Sport Supercharger sounding like the world's angriest hoover.
There's only 3 problems with the game which thankfully got addressed in later entries. 1) The lack of Ghosting in PR Zones was absolutely infuriating lol, so many Driftzone PBs ruined by goddamn traffic. 2) The PI system was really borked and handling parts cost so goddamn much compared to power (Speed and Acceleration was king basically) and 3) The Forzathon prize system was limited to certain times so if you missed the special cars when they were available then they're basically unobtainable now as the Auction House is dead.
Before the game hit EoL I would've loved them to make the Forzathon cars available in the Autoshow but atleast for FH4 they learn their lesson and gave us the repeating playlist.
As someone who still plays to this day:
2) there’s many tracks such as Woodland, Headland, and Rainforest circuit which are contested by multiple different types of builds, instead of the same handling build spam in the modern games. Yes, even FWD and RWD. It’s a lot better than stuff like FH5, where it’s either a grip build, a powerbuild, or a boneshaker
3) there’s still a glitch to complete old forzathons👀
@@Spherz I've seen a few people who really prefer the FH3 style like you, I can kinda understand it but I've personally I've just never felt that comfortable with it. I'm generally someone who prefers purist builds so that might be part of it where I dislike using engine swaps and especially aero to counteract a car's deficits.
Especially in the lower classes where I just feel very restricted in terms of what I can upgrade on the car.
For FH5 I just massively prefer what to me feels like more freedom in terms of how I can build, especially with stuff like the Vintage Race Tires and Whitewall tires on the older models for D-B class.
And FWD is actually pretty OP in FH5, it's very viable up until A Class and in C and B class especially it's probably the strongest drivetrain.
Same with RWD where in a lot of cases it's way better for grip, power and all-round builds unless the car you're tuning gets a massive PI drop with an AWD swap or is just very sketchy to drive.
Boneshaker is overrated now as well, it used to be super strong and still is a very good contender but there's now even better cars available if you're really pushing for that final % of pace potential. Nowadays it's only really overwhelmingly dominant in S1 Cross Country where it edges out cars like the Lola T70, Alfa 33S and Porsche 906 on most tracks.
That's very interesting, I'll have to look into it as I'm still missing two of the Porsches.
Horizon 1 and 2 had the story and atmosphere, 4 and 5 act as a fantasy car sandbox, 3 existed in the middle, best of both worlds. I'm glad to have played it in its hayday.
I'm so glad you mentioned the skyboxes, it may be the best I've seen on any game
I have 3,000 hours in this game and most of that was either roleplays in (Byron and Surfers), cruising, infected/flag rush, running the Goliath with friends, and drag racing at the train bridge or airstrip.
I miss the in game clubs so much they were way better than what we have now. I also have a ton of fond memories of doing drag races at the air strip with my friends. Dodge Dart and the Mercury Coupe were the kings of the strip.
Forza horizon 1 for me, still rember playing it the day it came out, the intro is so memorable
There is a gas station in fh1, it's on the road that leads to Carson from Montano plains on the right side, no logos or anything like that but it's obviously a gas station. As well as another gas station on the north side of Carson coming off the highway.
I Forgot about those!
Yessir I remember parking at that and then cruising to the dam for drag racing👌👌👌
Weird, I just drove around both of those areas and couldn't find either of them. Are you sure you aren't thinking of the "Trent's tool shed" auto shops that are in those areas? If you have any pics or a more specific location I'd love to see it!
Personally because I’m from U.K. FH4 was by far the most fun
Fh3 city was really good though and the convoy feature was cool where you beep your horn and they join your convoy, they should bring car meet back
Ive still not upgraded from Forza horizon 3. And i still play and love it every day
Even though I have all the other Forza games I think that you aren’t even missing out on anything but the cars because everything this games does is better than the rest. It’s hard to believe this game is 8 years old
I hate to say it, but going back to this game makes me realize how much Horizon 5 just doesn't have the "Horizon charm" like this one. So many cool innovative features, Horizon 5 has felt recycled for a long time. I really hope Horizon 6 goes for something new.
I’m gonna go watch the fh3 trailer now. Thank you
what did you think?
You forgot to mention drivatar convoys, you could honk at them, and they'll follow you. You could even start races with them while cruising. I miss that feature
As an aussie & forza fan (of the time) - this was the GOAT
I'm so happy I found a copy of this game on disc recently
It was also the last game that online worked flawlessly. Collisions on was much better
finally his video about the actual best is out.
i miss 3, as an aussie the map was elite. and it was before the permanently online bogus. private sessions actually worked, ever since 4 came out when you finnished an event youd get sent to random lobbies and have to re-join up with your friends, my friends and i straight up stopped playing events and just did open world stuff.
I remember seeing the trailer and instantly falling in love, i played this game non stop for like 2 years and made so many great memories, the hole cops n robbers stuff, how you always had a Free roam sprint to the next race, playing late into the night with friends, The sound design, the Visuals, How the cars drove just everything was perfect, never got boring and most importantly for me, showing me how beautiful Australia is, which is why I'm hopefully moving there from here in Germany in 2-3 Years.
This game has so much soul and you can literally feel how much love went into this Game, i always get really Nostalgic and happy seeing this Game, one of my all Time Favourite games.
i've never played horizon 3, and i've played all of the others before
and without a doubt i feel like there's a huge jump from 2 to 3, where you get the feel of 4 and 5
Horizon 3 was a great game but also the beginning of the end of progression for the series. Loved fucking around with friends around Australia but it’s hard for me to not view this as the game where Horizon just got it so wrong.
All they had to do was alternate
The softened "progression" isn't bad
@@i_love_musique333 I don't agree
Remember, they are now *forced* to Carry an ESRB E Rating, that makes it nearly Impossible to do a Story, so how can they bring back Progression (Zero to Hero) with no Story (due to the ESRB giving an E-10 to FH2 despite it being a PEGI 3 in the UK/EU) to hang it from?
FH3 is also when the blight of games as a service entered the franchise.
@@simeonyves5940 tell me, what were Need For Speed Underground 1 and 2 rated?
as someone who lives in australia and on the gold coast where surfers paradise is located, the game is actually great. one problem i have with it is that they say “ we are gonna take the great ocean road to surfers” that trip would take 3-4 days with no breaks ☠️☠️
FH3 was the first horizon i played after switching to an Xbox One, played it a ton with some online buddies, we'd do championship races, cruise around the map, mess around and it was good fun. another one of my favorite features was that it was the first and only game to let you play custom music via the Groove Music radio station, which would sync your Groove Music library in-game, unfortunately Microsoft killed the app like 2 or 3 years after the game so it no longer works :(
FH3 is my first Horizon game and favorite. The intro to that game is absolutely magical, the vibe, the music, Centenario, visuals, it's such a feeling. It's so sad that it didn't get a Steam release.
Speaking of the skyline, I really like how the Surfer's Paradise can be seen in the distance from the top of Blizzard Mountain.
Gosh, I love this game so much! ❤️
It did one special thing to me, that no (race) game ever pulled off: It brought back so many memories of the best trip I ever had in my life, which was our honeymoon we spent in Australia. Just by driving through Byron Bay or other spots my heart still gets flooded with emotions because I’m reminded of the days we spent Down Under.
It also was my first Horizon and since I was more of simracing guy back then, I wasn’t expecting much. But the beauty of these sunrises, the night sky, the landmarks and the music… It still gets me 3.5 years after I started playing it (yeah, I was late to the party).
I played FH4 und FH5 in the meantime, too. But FH3 isn’t just the best for me, because of the atmosphere, but also because it works great as single player experience with championships and a rough feeling of a progresion. I know it’s a very small thing, but there’s a completion indicator in one of the menus and thatt small UI thing alone motivates me more to keep playing than everything FH4 and FH5 have to offer. Two days ago, I brought the completion to a little bit over 95%. I fear it’s time to finally learn some drifting… 😉
@HokiHoshi: Thanks for this video series. I’m looking forward to every part of it and I really like what you are doing with it. After covering the main games, maybe you want to go deep on the expansions?
Hey, thank you!! It seems like a lot of folks had a similar entry to the series with FH3. Glad you've been liking these vids so far! I went back and forth a lot on whether or not to cover the expansions with every game but decided against it in the end, so going back and reviewing all the DLCs would be cool!
FH3 was my first horizon game, racing game, and now that I think about it, my first video game. It’s what got me into cars, and the game is just really nostalgic for me. The expansions, the music, the map, and the fact I wouldn’t upgrade my camshaft because it made my braking so ever so slightly worse (I knew nothing about cars at the time), it was just great. Totally agree with you.
Such a weird thing to realize, but when doing a burnout in FH3 the tire smoke actually "flows" with the spinning wheels...very hard to explain, but very noticeable when comparing to the newer games
Spot on about that trailer. It gets me emotional haha 🔥🔥🔥
FH3 is absolutely my favorite in the series. It's just fantastic all around. The map, the city skyline, the music, the cars, the bucket lists, and the graphics. I remember the graphics at the time just blew me and my brother away. They still look good. Just the entire game had a vibe to it. You touched on most of it in the video. That was a fun watch.
Apart from being Australian myself, it was the first Horizon game I play. The environments and graphic detail was fantastic, right down to the Telstra phone boxes. Made you feel right at home. The 'Create your own server' option was amazing. The only negative for me was the non-ghosting of other online players. You got many trolls that would enjoy ramming you at high speed for their jollys. And it made it difficult for drift and speed zones with NPC cars in the way. I'll FYI you on the gas station. In Australia we call them 'servos', short for service stations, because the old petrol stations sometimes had a car servicing area to have your car serviced.
All my life I was a die-hard NFS fan. Owned and played every single one. During 2018, I really felt like NFS was just not fun driving anymore (2015 and Payback with its 'Drift to Turn') and I wasn't into Sim Racing at the time. It was either around the holidays or earlier into 2019 where I saw something about FH4. I gave it a shot and fell in love right away. Went back and tried FH3 not too long after, and besides the physics being a bit more flushed out in 4, I still loved 3 more. The atmosphere, the map, the soundtrack, the learning to tune, all felt really fun.
Loving this series so much. This one convinced me to try #3, but as a PC-only guy there doesn't seem to be a way :( Ah well, back to #5.
Horizon 3 was the pinnacle of the series as far as I'm concerned, for many of the reasons you stated above hoki, but the one thing stands out to me was drag racing. When I say this I'm not taking about the kids running awd, v12 swapped bs blasting end to end at the air strip, I'm talking about the train tracks. I would come home every day from school to spend hours testing and tuning different cars there. I used to set a marker for 440 yards at certain speed traps so I could at least get some data as to whether my tunes were working correctly or not. The overall feel of the cars when you launched from a dig with nothing but race tires at the time was second to none. Today all you have to do is put "Drag Slicks" on your car, which is a cool option but lacks the challenge of the "No prep" style of racing we had in Horizon 3. You fought the car the entire way down the track, fighting for every bit of traction you could get. Those races were unforgettable and I'm ashamed we have nothing even close in the newer installments of the series. Sure, you could start a LFG post and make a rule set similar to what we had back then, but it would never be the same. That's the one thing I miss the most and the one thing I'd like to see back, other than a placed dedicated to doing tandem drifts with lower HP cars rather than the 1500hp drift zones we have now, but that's just me. -Deezy
1:50 no way auto balance tf2
😂😂😂
LOL I did not catch that
The way you put it at 6:00 about the city being a landmark seen from the whole map, makes me really excited for a Japanese map. With a dense city
Personally I think horizon 2 is the best horizon, but your opinion is valid in my eyes
The standout feature of this game for me was the Groove Music radio station. It was a custom radio station which worked on both Xbox and PC via uploading your songs to OneDrive. I much preferred it over playing music in the background as it integrated into the game seamlessly, with the songs playing on the Horizon festival speakers, starting in sync with races, in-game adjustable volume to roughly match that of the default stations etc.
The fact that this station was removed in March 2019 due to the discontinuation of Groove music with no replacement being offered in future games is the one feature (or lack thereof) that disappoints me the most about the series nowadays.
I always loved the small details of the map. It was almost jarring seeing how much it all looked like Australia (specifically north/east NSW & south/east QLD) after being so used to most games looking like America. Things like the road lines and the reflectors, even the wheelie bins. I would constantly look houses and think, “I’m certain I’ve seen that exact house in real life”.
Fh3 was my favorite one as well. 1500hp class b cars where the shit
My fav. Is horizon 2 so chill, very accurate engine sound and very good radio songs
Forza horizon 3 gameplay wise in my opinion is the strongest title the map compliments the game so well
Just remembered I owned this game on PC and will finally have time to play it in full!
Thank you for explaining why this is the best Forza!
Also that trailer gave me chills!
Subscribed!
I absolutely love this game. I rewatch the Horizon 3 trailer every now again and it gives me goosebumps, but this game is just pure fun. I only wish I could have bought all the DLC car packs before the game went off the store. Definitely my favorite Horizon game and probably favorite game of all time.
I wish you would of also talked about the expansions. This is the most perfect Horizon hands down
This was the first Horizon I got when I bought my Xbox One. I played it and then moved up to 4 when it came out and never really looked back. When Covid hit and I was stuck indoors, I came back and fully 100% the game. Its definitely my favourite Horizon of all time
The fact that you can't get the first 3 Horizon games without going on dodgy key reseller sites and pay, like, 10x the price AND/OR sail the digital sea is atrocious on MS's part.
FH3 was the game that both ignited my love for racing games and the single game I wanted the most ever. There is something to this game that hooks me in like no other racing game I've ever played...
Also had custom radio
Fun fact. That petrol station is Caltex, just de-branded for obvious reasons.
YES IVE BEEN WAITING FOR A BEST HORIZON VIDEO FOR 3
I remember staying home from school the day this game released bc I bought the ultimate edition and couldn’t wait to drive in Australia. The trailer hooked me so bad no other Forza game has done that to me
It's hard to overstate just how magical FH3 felt back in 2016 - especially when it came to the social aspect. Online freeroam wasn't just permanently ingrained into the game - you had to go out of your way to enter it. You had to *want* to meet other people.
It was the last Horizon game to have an open hot mic in the lobby and on races: no extra steps, not having to invite everyone to a convoy. You just join, unmute, and start talking. It felt alive because of that - you really were playing against other real, living people.
Collisions were on in freeroam too. Sure, this left the door open for griefing, but it lended credence to you actually coexisting with other people.
Sure, it wasn't perfect. Not even close. It was hard to find a lobby where people weren't just drag racing V12 Darts, or drifting around the parking lot ad infinitum, or cruising at only 5 MPH. And Horizon 3 had a lot of flaws in retrospect. But there's a reason I sunk 2,700 hours into this game over 2 years.
It was truly the end of an era when it came to social multiplayer. Horizon 4 and beyond, along with many other games, added a lot more hoops to reach that same level of interactivity with people. And it's just too much bullshit for most people to bother with. Nobody wants to talk shit with strangers in hot lobbies anymore. It's all so insular now
Horizon 4 and 5 can claim to make the games more connected than ever, but they do the opposite. Developers and publishers disincentivize this, people have fallen out of favor with it, and it doesn't help that games are just worse overall now. Horizon 3 is a kind of game that can never again be replicated, and that makes me sad. All of that wonder and joy I felt, and ambition for what the future held: all for naught.
Man I never saw that Horizon 3 launch trailer, but it STILL gave me chills 7 years later.
my first horizon game and my favorite by far. idk about all this analysis but I just feel the vibes were the best back then
i dont mean to bash analyzing... i love analysis and this video. im just not smart enough to notice haha
Horizon 3, where my Horizon journey began, could not have picked a better game to start it at. The map, cars, graphics, music etc. Horizon 3 stands above the rest in many ways, but if I could use a phrase to describe it, I would say "Absolutely incredible!!!" To this day, I still go back to it, play online, still can find full lobbies!!! I can go on FH4 and there only be 34 players in a lobby that can hold 70. Horizon is truly the very BEST Horizon game created, and to this day, none have out done it in every category
Im replaying on my new pc and I love this game to death. I like how the offline world is packed with drivatars that you can challenge to races. You have to win x amount to unlock more street races which were always at night. The real city was also a vibe. 10/10 game. Hope we get a remasters of 2 and 3 with some small additions.
Where is it for sale on PC?
this literally made me download Forza Horizon 3
can't believe you didn't talk about the dev build accident. by far the best customization in any of these games and it's a damn shame it's so hard to set it up
By far the best horizon and I've been playing since horizon 2😮💨
Love your insights into this game. I always take time in any game to try and take in all the visual and audio details the developers put into the games. This one is incredible for both. I got into it late (earlier this year actually). Only reason I picked it up was to drive a Prowler in a video game. Was also the reason I picked up a refurbished Xbox 1at the same time. I am a huge fan of this game and regret not getting into it when it was current to enjoy all the features. Great video- thanks!
I guess they don't like releasing old games, but if they just release the map itself for dlc for 5 l. I would still buy that even though I rather have the whole game
So glad you brought up the trailer, one of my favourite things to come out of the franchise lol
Went back and played this game not all that long ago after starting with FH4 and then FH5. I played it for a bit and quickly decided that it was my favorite of the three with FH4 being a fairly close second mostly due to the multitude of features and better structured campaign
Exact same for me to the letter. I even paid *way* too much for a Blizzard Mountain code on a key site last fall. LOL
I've since also played through most of FH1 and FH2 and quite honestly, 1 is amazing... much better than I expected it to be. 2 is great as well, but 3 is much better.
I miss bucket list challanges and also career championships wher you'd collect points across 3 races to win or lose the championship. I think that while some parts of the fh series has been massily improved upon, quite a lot of actually fun stuff is still missing, which contributes to the feeling that fh4 and 5 are kind of boring. Tho I must admit as good as the fh3 map was as a open area, amount of roads especially in the middle of the map was tad bit low thus making it feel as if the map was actually boring
Great series - you’ve convinced me I will buy it and play it. Its actually the only horizon I haven’t played
I think Horizon 3 was just perfect, I think the map was the best thing about it, and the game didn't have a lot of the " details and things " that I dislike in 5. There's so much of 3 that I wish they added back/implemented better and some stuff of 5 I wish they removed.
I hope that at the end you do a rank of each of the horizons
5:03 that’s a pretty fuckin cool piece of lore
Forza Horizon 3 was also the first game that introduced drift angle kits, which was limited to some cars only.
I love FH3 and FH4. FH4 is one of my favorite soundtracks
By far the best in-game music. Every song made you feel something and made driving so enjoyable.
FH3 is my favourite because it's the last one with a single player campaign with championships and not just exhibition races.
I went to take a peek at the trailer...one reason was because FH3 was the only FH game I played fully/finished when it came out and it was great. I watched that trailer and had a little tear up (nice). It's funny because I don't think I watched the trailer for it when it was coming out or at least I don't remember it
havent watched the vid yet but i hard agree. FH3 is the best Forza Horizon game
FH3 holds a special place in my heart, I got it when I was first getting into cars, I say it’s the best probably cause of bias but when 4 and 5 came out I would still play 3 only playing the other two when I felt like using newer or cars that arnt in 3, and today it’s the only reason my one s is still around since I own it on disc
Peak Horizon, such a joke that Horizon 5 isn't this perfected
hotwheels dlc for fh3 can never be beat best forza dlc
Kinda funny some of the smallest things in this game is stuff we want the most in fh5 😂
Loved it, and I think a feature that was not mentioned was convoys with AI. When you honk your horn, you can get the AI cars to join you and just cruise around the map, or race to various destinations. FH3 is the only horizon to have this feature.
As far as maps go I rank like this: 4, 2, 5, 3 and 1. For a total game package, there’s nothing close 5. The quality of updates and Eventlab are incredible.
In Australia, they are called "Petrol Stations"
So strictly speaking, there are still no Gas-Stations in the Forza Horizon series.
As an Australian, it is a real shame this game seems to no longer be on Steam, though v.v
I started to tear up seeing that trophy truck jumping in the trailer for the first time
A lot of things I forgot about! I didn't play FH3 for very long, I was a late-comer to it and when FH4 dropped I moved on to it and didn't really come back. Regrets.
up until 2017, I had played the Forza Motorsport series through my uncles Xbox. I liked the motorsport games for their car list, and handling like fm2/3/4; but I never really invested much time in them as I never had an Xbox, and was a die-hard PlayStation fan enjoying Hot Pursuit, MW2012, Burnout Paradise/Revenge, Hot wheels Beat That, GT5, Mod Nation Racers etc. That changed though when FH3 was revealed as up until that point I didn't have any knowledge of the Horizon Series existence, and after I watched the infamous E3 trailer the rest was history. when it was released, I'd beg my dad to buy me an XB1 so I could solely play THIS game. I'd go to my best friend's house and grind the game with him for HOURS, leveling him up from 26 to 371 and i was just blown away by the number of cars this game had, the multiplayer and going to drift meets at the parking lot, and the color lively vibe of this game; and in late 2017 after I got home from visiting my mom in NY, my dad bought me The Horizon Hot wheels bundle for my birthday and I was excited. Ever since then I've dumped around 550+ hours into the game, and still play it over 4 & 5 to this day. really does suck that a lot of things that made this game so special we're either dumbed down or scrapped entirely, but this game will always hold a special place in my heart.